


Equivalent Exchange

by White Aster (white_aster)



Series: Field Maneuvers (FF7/FMA crossover) [8]
Category: Final Fantasy VII, Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-06 03:17:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/white_aster/pseuds/White%20Aster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mako injection gone wrong, Kimberly begins to see the value of being part of the group, and Greed gets something he's wanted for a long time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Equivalent Exchange

Kimberly never liked the mako injections. He doubted that any SOLDIER did. He'd never met anyone that couldn't be laid pathetically low by 5ccs of med-grade mako. The closest he'd seen was Elric, who usually looked green around the gills for a day and then passed out for another three. Kimberly wished that he could do the same. It was undignified to be stumbling about, hallucinating and puking for most of a week over a bitty syringe of green goo.

Or orange-and-green goo, as the case was apparently this time. The stuff swirled like oil and water, not mixing in its tiny plastic prison. Kimberly looked up at the lab tech, then back at the syringe as the tech swabbed his arm. "Something new?"

The lab tech blinked at him as he stuck the needle in and depressed the plunger. He hesitated, as if wondering if Kimberly was in the need-to-know loop, then shrugged. It wasn't like Kimberly couldn't _see_ the difference, after all. "Improved formula."

"Right," Kimberly muttered. He'd long ago figured out that the scientists here didn't know everything (or, sometimes, _enough_) about the mako they shot into peoples' veins. Every SOLDIER knew about the infrequent, quickly-hushed cases of those who had "reactions" to the injections: sudden homicidal rages, uncontrolled magical outbursts, catatonia, death. Not that any of that kept Kimberly away. Every power had its price, after all. Nothing was free.

Still. Elric had gotten his injections the week before and hadn't mentioned any new formula. Kimberly was all for experimentation, but that didn't mean he liked the idea of being the guinea pig for one of the scientists' new brews.

"You know the drill. Two hours." The lab tech gestured for him to lie back before walking off.

Yeah, Kimberly knew the drill. They'd keep him here a bit to see if he turned into a meltdown case, then send him back to the barracks to be sick where they didn't have to deal with him.

Kimberly swung his legs up and laid back on the hard cot, the overhead lights already turning too-bright and slightly phosphorescent around the edges. The burn as the mako sank into his bloodstream wasn't any worse than usual, at least. Just a bit...warmer.

Kimberly closed his eyes and started the long process of waiting.

\---------------

Greed pushed away from the computer in the tiny cubby that pretended to be his office. He rubbed his eyes, then the back of his neck, and squinted at the clock in the corner of the screen. Nearly noon. And he was only about halfway through the paperwork. _Fuck. This is going to take all damned day...._

He yawned and leaned back, twisting so his spine cracked just so. The room was so small that he could plant his feet on one wall and press his palms against the opposite one. "Hey, Elric," he called, "I'll clean all your kit if you come do the paperwork."

"Hell, no," Elric's voice floated back from the main room, where Greed had last seen him scrubbing behemoth blood out from between the plates of his gloves.

Greed stood, wandering to the door just for something to do. Yep, the kid was still at it, head bent over the gloves laid out on the poker table, going to town with solvent and a toothbrush. Behemoth blood was a bitch on metal, too. Etched in like fucking acid. "Having too much fun, huh?"

Elric snorted, glancing up. "Rather this than 'Fill out each form completely and in triplicate, with all attached schedules, addendums, and genetic samples....'"

Greed winced, remembering that he _did_ need to add on a Schedule 49-A-12 for the requisition for Dorochet's new sidearm. He'd forgotten about that. _Fuck._ He yawned again, "I'll pay you. 1000 gil."

"No," Elric eyed a particularly discolored plate dubiously and reached for a wire brush.

"Million gil."

Elric looked up long enough to glare at him. His lips quirked almost into a smile, though. "You don't _have_ a million gil."

"I might," Greed said, examining his fingernails. "You never know."

"You said you were a street thug from under the Plate," Elric pointed out, scrubbing with a vengeance until metal filings caught the sunlight.

"A _damned good_ street thug, thank you," Greed corrected, but gave up. "When should the others be back, again? And seriously, you should just replace that. You can scrub that thing until Yule rolls around, it's still not gonna come clean."

Elric made a face and dropped the plate he was working on in disgust, reaching for the rag to clean off his hands. The smell of oil and cleaning fluid was strong, the sunlight shining in through the window onto the table and Elric's metal-dusted hands. It was a good smell, filled with memories of lazy days in the barracks. "Martel and the others should be another hour at least, by the time they hump it all the way across town. Kimberly should be back soon, though." Elric's mouth quirked up grimly. "I've got the handcuffs ready."

Greed grinned approvingly. "Kinky."

Elric rolled his eyes. "Please. Like I'd touch that with a ten-foot pole." He sniffed his fingers, made a face, and headed over to the sink. "He hallucinates, after mako injections. The first time, he raved for three days about eyes in the dark and red stone, and I think he was seeing evil cats all over the place. He kept trying to get his gloves for self-defense. We had to hide them _and_ tie him to his bunk."

Greed nodded sagely, cocking his head at the sound of the outer door opening, then closing. "That's why they stagger the injection schedule like this. They expect us to keep each other together, right after. Really, we're SOLDIERS. Who else is going to be able to keep us from--fuck, Kimberly, you look like hell."

Out of the corner of his eye, Greed saw Elric twist around to look, but by then he was already halfway across the room. Kimberly was leaning against the doorjamb like it was all that was holding him upright. Then he raised his head, and one look at the bright orange glow that was his eyes made Greed stop, the hair on the back of his neck standing straight up. The room, Greed realized, suddenly reeked of magic, hot and electric, like a spell about to go off. "Kimberly. You ok?"

Kimberly looked far from ok. Greed could see him trembling, face and bare arms unnaturally flushed, so red he looked like he'd been sunburned. Kimberly's pupils were barely visible under the swirling veil of mako swimming in his eyes. "I feel hot," Kimberly murmured.

Greed made himself take the last few steps, though his every battle instinct was telling him to get the hell away. Very slowly, he reached out. He could feel the heat rolling off the kid even before skin touched skin. When his hand made contact with Kimberly's forehead, Kimberly hissed, like he was being burned, and jerked his head away, weakly. "You're burning up," Greed said.

"Should we call Medical?" Elric asked, from somewhere behind him.

Kimberly shook his head, and for once Greed agreed. "Hell no. They let him go, and they never know what to do for reactions anyway. Why do you think they only keep us a few hours? Grab the medkit and meet us in the showers."

"Yes, sir." Greed didn't turn to look at him, just slinging one of Kimberly's arms over his shoulders. It was a sign of how bad off Kimberly was that he didn't complain.

"How long's it been like this?" Greed asked as they headed toward the bathroom. Kimberly's steps were slow, unsteady, like he couldn't quite remember where the floor was.

"Not...not long. It wasn't this bad when I left Medical. Just...halfway back...started feeling warm. They gave me...gave me something new. The injection looked...different. Orange. Not...not...fuck...." Kimberly sagged a bit in Greed's hold, and Greed could _feel_ his body temperature spiking where the skin of his arm touched Kimberly's.

Greed swore, abandoning the slow and careful for the fast and now. He hustled Kimberly into the shower by sheer upper body strength, positioned him right under the nearest of the showerheads, and cranked the cold water knob. Water splattered down on both of them in a soaking rain. Kimberly bit down on a cry when it hit him but didn't try to move away, splaying one red hand against the tiles for balance. He looked up, his breath speeding, and even through the mako oddness in his eyes, Greed could see the fear. He reached out without even thinking, putting both palms on either side of Kimberly's face and saying, "Hold on. You're gonna be ok."

Kimberly nodded, his jaw setting. He reached up, hands like brands against Greed's, and pulled them away. He winced, his hands spasming, and he let go, gasping, "Get...get out of the way."

The water, Greed realized, was suddenly steaming.

"Fuck." He jerked back just as Kimberly screamed through his teeth and fire bloomed between his hands into a twisting coil of flame completely undeterred by the falling water.

"Fuck!" Elric yelped behind him. The medpack clattered to the tiles, and Greed heard the kid pelt away again.

Kimberly was, all too obviously, fighting to control whatever the mako was doing, breath coming so fast that he was probably hyperventilating. His eyes were only for the spell still going in front of him, arcing between his palms, snapping at his fingers, but not, apparently, actually burning him. As Greed watched, the fire expanded and contracted, each expansion met with a narrowing of Kimberly's eyes as he forced it back. Every time he did it, though, made the fire burn that much brighter and beat that much hotter against Greed's skin.

Kimberly wasn't, Greed realized, going to be able to hold it forever. Not when fire was still climbing out of his skin in orange rivulets, pushed out and flowing down his arms to join the unstable star between his hands. Not when the very air in the room was beginning to feel like the inside of an oven.

He probably should have run, Greed would think later. Nothing he could do to help a spell going awry in slow-motion, after all. Running definitely would have been the smart thing to do. It wasn't, of course, what Greed actually _did_. The last thing Greed would ever do when faced with the possible death of one of his men was run. So he did the second-best thing: he scrambled closer, spooning himself to Kimberly's back oh so carefully, pulling himself within whatever meager aura of invulnerability Kimberly was maintaining by tooth and nail. He felt fire prickle along his skin briefly, but then he was inside, plastered against Kimberly's unnatural heat. Greed could feel the thrum of power through the kid's body, wrapped around muscle and bone, could smell it in every panted breath as Greed wrapped an arm around Kimberly's waist. "You can do this," he murmured quietly in Kimberly's ear. "Don't fight it, just let it flow. Up and out, soldier. Up and out."

Kimberly convulsed, screaming hoarsely, and the heat became suddenly unbearable, running up Greed's arms, washing over his face, stealing his breath away. Just before he closed his eyes and buried his face in the back of Kimberly's neck, Greed saw the fire between Kimberly's shaking palms go nova, white-hot.

There was a roar of flames, a crackling boom, and the light went away but the searing heat remained. Greed opened his eyes and realized, to his relief, that they were not dead, though Kimberly was limp and falling forward in his arms. They were, however, both a bit on fire. As was some of the roof, where Kimberly's "reaction" had exited the building in what Greed assumed had been an awesome lightshow. He could see blue sky through the hole.

And then Elric, gods bless his quick-thinking heart, ran back in with the fire extinguisher and doused both them and the flaming bits of the roof in cold foam, cursing loudly the whole time.

The whole thing hadn't taken more than two minutes.

Greed, heart still pounding, just leaned against the tiles, pulling the unconscious Kimberly back to lean with him. They were both the worse for wear, clothes and hair smoldering under the extinguisher foam. Greed's eyes watered uncontrollably, and his arms were starting to blister. Kimberly'd taken the brunt of it. The front of his shirt was completely burned away. Livid burns ran over his face and arms, a few of them charred at the edges. His hands, though, were the worst. His palms looked like he'd taken a blowtorch to them, and the smell of roasted meat was starting to fill the room.

Bad, definitely. If Greed didn't know he had a pack of military-grade healing potions sitting next to him and a handful of Cure materia in his footlocker, he'd have been worried. And at that point, Greed would have broken out his personal materia rather than send Kimberly to Medical again.

"Showoff," Greed murmured to Kimberly as he shook foam out of his eyes and reached for the medpack. "You always have to be an overachiever, don't you?"

\------------

Kimberly floated up out of sleep with the distinct impression that he'd forgotten something. The feeling didn't go away, for several reasons, when he rolled over and opened his eyes. First, the light was all wrong, slanting in at entirely the wrong angle for the dawn he usually woke up to. Second, his skin twinged in that too-tight way that he associated with trouble and hospitals and chugging potions. This time was particularly bad, melding his face, chest, arms, and especially his hands into one long, uncomfortable _itch_.

Thirdly, his CO was in the wrong bed. Not that this was anything new, but Greed didn't usually settle himself down in the empty bunk next to Kimberly and Elric's, and certainly not to just lean against the wall and fall asleep. And since when did he have a crewcut?

Kimberly frowned, yawning, and rubbed a hand over his face to ease the itch in his palm. Then he got a good look at it, and the shiny expanse of healed burn spiking outwards from the middle of his palm did wonders for his memory. "...fuck."

Greed stirred, one eye opening. "Morning, sunshine. How do you feel?"

Kimberly looked down at his hands, then his arms, making sure that everything was still there. Especially since he was pretty sure that it wasn't a given. "Like I just got put back together. What's the damage?"

"One hole in the roof, one slightly singed SOLDIER, and one SOLDIER who probably owes his life to Elric's paranoia about stocking the medkit." Greed stretched his arms and legs in front of him, joints popping softly. "You looked about like you'd expect for someone who'd had a fira blow up in their face, but it wasn't anything some hi-potions and materia couldn't cover. I got off with some blisters and needing a new haircut." He rubbed a hand along his newly-shorn skull. "You'll need one, too, but we got potions in you fast enough that that's gonna be the only lasting damage."

Kimberly reached up to his hair and made a face. It felt like he'd lost most of one side. He'd have to argue with the barber, see how much of his braid they could save. Still.... "I'll take it. All considered." He squinted at the light, then at Greed's hair again. "How long was I out?"

"'Bout a day and a half," Greed said, working a crick out of his neck with a wince. "It's suppertime. The others'll be back in a bit with our share of the mystery meat."

Kimberly's stomach rumbled in spite of itself. After a day of nothing, evidently even eating the mess hall's "meat-flavored food products" sounded good.

Kimberly swung his feet over the side of his bunk, testing out how vertical felt. Not bad. Greed watched him like a mother hawk, his expression serious. "You good?"

"Yes, Mom--whoafuck!" Kimberly's attempt at sarcasm didn't survive trying to stand up. His legs evidently hadn't gotten the message about holding him up and collapsed under him like jelly. He shot a hand out to catch himself on the bunk support, but his arms weren't much better. A wave of gray washed over his vision, and Greed's quick grab, catching him around the chest, was all that kept him from slamming face-first into the floor. "Ok," Kimberly said, teeth gritted, eyes blinking until color came back into the world. "Maybe not. Fuck."

Part of him waited for some crack from Greed, but the captain just eased him back down on the bed. "You should rest some more. That fireball was feeding off you, wasn't it?"

"Probably," Kimberly said, rubbing a hand over his face again, then both hands when that set his skin itching again. "Gods only know what the hell was in that syringe. Distilled fire materia, some kind of summon....who the fuck knows." He looked down at his hands, contemplating the very real possibility that he might have died, had Greed not said what he did in the showers, had Kimberly tried to contain the materia's effects any longer. It didn't bother him overmuch. No SOLDIER worth his eyes worried about dying. What irked him most was the idea of dying _stupidly_. And dying from a freak mako reaction on the floor of the Alpha barracks showers fell squarely in the middle of "stupid". "Thanks," he said, grudgingly. Then, at Greed's raised eyebrow, "For saying what you did. I was trying to contain it, and it wasn't working. I wouldn't have thought of just trying to direct it. It's not the way materia works. But then, that shit certainly wasn't materia."

Greed grinned. "Gut instinct. It looked like it was riding you. Only thing you can do with a runaway chocobo is try to steer, eh?"

Greed crooked one arm up on Elric's top bunk. The sun was starting to set, the shadows falling long across the room. His eyes glowed purple in strange contrast to the orange-yellow light. Kimberly noticed that Greed was still in his sleeping shorts and t-shirt. Obviously he hadn't gone outside that day. So either he'd been hurt more than he'd said and been laid up recuperating, same as Kimberly, or he'd been hanging about, waiting for Kimberly to wake up.

Outside, there was a crunch of boots, a snatch of laughter as someone passed. "Get some shut-eye. I'll wake you for dinner," Greed said, and the brief grip on Kimberly's shoulder before he moved away was only that, for once.

\------------

Kimberly found himself lying awake that night for a reason that had little to do with the itch of healing skin.

It wasn't hard to figure out the Pack's deal. Everyone wanted something, and unless you wanted to piss people off, you usually had to give up something in return, in one way or another. Equilibrium. Equivalent exchange. He'd learned that a long time ago. In a SOLDIER unit, mostly what people wanted was security and entertainment. The average SOLDIER lifespan was something no one wanted to think about too hard, but give a SOLDIER a better-than-average chance to survive their next mission and something to help them unwind afterwards, and most were pretty content. It was the same with Greed's unit: they worked hard and played hard and seemed pretty happy to repeat the cycle without too much variation. Kimberly was no different. He'd like to make First Class some day just to show that he could, but in the meantime he mostly wanted to stay alive, draw a steady paycheck, and not be annoyed by the people around him.

And there, he thought, shifting absently to rub away an itch along his shoulder, was the issue.

Kimberly'd be the first to admit that he often just did not get people. They had strange priorities, made illogical decisions, and overall didn't make _sense_ more often than not, especially when it came to other people. Why everyone couldn't be competent and look out for themselves was beyond Kimberly. The Pack in particular seemed to like to tangle itself up in a messier-than-usual web of social interactions. When Kimberly had realized that his new unit not only had the barest grasp of formal military discipline but were also fucking each other, he'd expected nothing better than he'd seen from any other idiots who couldn't keep it in their pants: a gradual collapse into rivalries, insubordination, abuse, and general inefficiency.

He'd been genuinely surprised to see that, somehow, the Pack made it work. After enough study, he could almost see how. They were all reasonably trustworthy and held up their part of the deal. Look out for your teammates, and they would look out for you. Put yourself in danger for them, and they would do the same for you. Scratch their itches, and they would scratch yours. Equivalent exchange. More involved than usual, but yeah. No problem. Kimberly got that. What threw him at first was that it was all more personal, trusting, _closer_ than Kimberly was used to. He'd never been keen on relying on other people. He'd decided a long time ago that it was easier to do his own job, rely on himself, go his own way, and not worry about other people. Less responsibility, less people to worry about, but also, he was beginning to see, fewer resources to pull your ass out of the fire when you needed it, too.

He'd never thought that he'd need those resources. He'd been willing to take the risk that he'd never get into anything he couldn't get himself out of. Or, if he did, that he deserved what he got.

But that was before he was in a unit that saw so much action. Kimberly was rapidly running out of fingers to count how many times one of the others had kept him from getting cut off or shot or stabbed or treated to a faceful of firaga.

And then there was Greed, who was his own brand of crazy motherfucker, staying with Kimberly the other day not because he could really do anything, but just because he was a stubborn bastard who wouldn't leave a man behind.

He was, Kimberly admitted to the bottom of Elric's bunk, beginning to see the value in that. Maybe Kimberly would have been fine, trying to hold the spell back like he'd been. Maybe not.

Kimberly'd gotten used to seeing himself as an outsider. Outside the group, outside their little social contract. But really, the idiots were already giving him the perks, even though he wasn't really holding up his end of the deal. He had, he thought, two choices: take advantage of their idiocy and keep on like he was, or accept the deal and hold up his end of it. And the former, well...the rest of Alpha Unit was a lot of things, but they weren't dumb. They'd get tired of him being a freeloader eventually.

Kimberly thought back to Greed, sucking him off in the showers that one time, and then not asking for anything more than Kimberly wanted to give in return.

Overall, equivalent exchange wasn't a bad deal.

\------------  
_4 weeks later_

Greed didn't like Junon. It was a military town, too regimented, too tight-laced for his tastes. The booze was watered and overpriced, the red light district couldn't hold a candle to Midgar's, and the whole place was hot, humid, and always smelled like rusting metal, sweat, and burning military-grade mako.

They usually only saw Junon while passing through, catching a ride to somewhere else. Which was fine with Greed, really. The place made him itch in more ways than one, and he was just as glad when they didn't have to stay for very long. Still, one thing he didn't mind was the configuration of the dorms. The Pack's quarters in Midgar was one big open bunkroom designed for a force about twice their size, actually meant as a barracks for one of the regular divisions. Alpha Unit, like the rest of the SOLDIERs, qualified for one of the blocks of private rooms in the fancier dorms, but in the same way that they got a lot of the shit missions, they also had also had a mysterious room assignment snafu and gotten shoved into one of the barracks. It was supposed to be temporary, but no one had ever told them to move, and Greed hadn't pushed for a room change. In the end, once they'd all gotten to know each other, the unit had decided they'd gotten the better end of the deal: less privacy, but way more space than the usual cramped private quarters, and closer to the mess hall to boot.

Junon, on the other hand, gave them what Midgar should have: half a floor of a regular dorm, with small private rooms lining the hall like identical little cubicles with identical little beds. It was like living in an office building, but Greed had to admit that having the space to himself was a nice change of pace. He didn't mind living in his soldiers' back pockets most of the time, but the quiet (relative quiet, at least...the walls were as thick as the average cardboard box, if what he could hear from above and below him was any indication) was kind of nice. He knew that the others used it to do whatever solitary hobbies they had. Law carved. Dorochet meditated. Martel wrote seemingly endless letters to her brothers and sisters and cousins back home. Elric read. Kimberly read and worked, every now and then, on what little portable materia-crafting projects he carried around. Greed was, himself, taking up reading (which had nothing, he assured himself, to do with being able to make conversation with a certain silver-haired general of his acquaintance), but still, there was only so much private time a man could enjoy before getting antsy to spend it with someone else.

Which was exactly where he was when Kimberly showed up at his door. He leaned against the doorframe and asked, "You busy?"

Greed tossed his book down to the bottom of the bed. "Nah. Getting bored, actually. What's up?"

Kimberly came into the room, kicking the door shut behind him. Three steps and he was on the small bed, straddling Greed's lap.

A pleased "oh" was all that Greed had time for before Kimberly leaned in, smug half-smile on his face, and shut him up. The kid tasted like toothpaste, his skin slightly damp, his hair wet and smelling of standard-issue shampoo. He must have come straight from the showers. And boy did Greed have a damn good memory of Kimberly in the showers. By the time Kimberly leaned in enough for Greed to feel his cock hard against Greed's hip, Greed could press up and return the favor.

"Mmm," he said, pulling back enough to talk. He hated to question what was obviously a good thing, but Kimberly was just a squirrely enough character to make him wary. "Not that I'm complaining, but what brought this on?"

Kimberly rolled his eyes. "What, being horny isn't a good enough reason, now?"

Greed grinned. "Being horny's always a good reason." If Kimberly wanted to get in on the fun and games for real now, well, that was fine. He'd always known that Kimberly had too much heat in him to stay away for long. "Just curious what button I pushed, so I can do it again."

Kimberly blew out an annoyed breath, and ah, there was the prickly bastard Greed was used to. "I thought you of all people wouldn't make this complicated. If you're not interested--"

He shifted to get up, and Greed wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him right where he was. "Hell, yeah. Get the hell back here." He grinned. "Though I should turn you down, just to see the look on your face."

Kimberly blinked, then barked a laugh at his own words turned on him. His hands settled on Greed's soulders, trailing down over his chest. "But you won't."

Greed wasn't sure where this new brand of confidence was coming from, but he wasn't going to complain. "Hell, no." He eased his hands up under Kimberly's undershirt, palms sliding over damp skin stretched over lean muscle. "Same reason you didn't. Too good a deal to pass up. You got something particular in mind?" He slid his hands up Kimberly's back, fingers digging into the muscle just to feel him. "Because as much as I'd love to get my cock in you, it's not--"

_Not the only thing on the menu_, was what he was going to say, but Greed was looking right at Kimberly when he said it, and the heat that slid through Kimberly's eyes before he glanced away was unmistakable. It was enough to make Greed pause and raise an eyebrow. "...or maybe you've changed your mind?" He raised his knees a bit, pulling with his arms and settling Kimberly more firmly in his lap. The kid tensed a bit, and that wasn't a good sign. Greed sighed. Just the thought had him hard as nails. "Or not. You know, you're enough to make a man doubt his skills...."

Kimberly rolled his eyes. "It's not about the position, and you know it. It's about the...." He stopped, brow furrowed like he wasn't sure what to say...or maybe that saying more would give away too much.

But Greed followed him just fine. "Power." He leaned in to murmur it in Kimberly's ear, bit down on the meat of Kimberly's shoulder just hard enough to feel his breath catch. "Control. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Kimberly said, pulling back, Greed was pretty sure, just to prove he could. He watched Greed warily, eyes narrowed, like he expected Greed to try something, to push. "I'm nobody's bitch."

Greed just stared at him for a long moment, then couldn't help but laugh, long and loud enough to feel Kimberly tense up with anger. Greed choked it back to a chuckle. "Kimberly, I've seen you pulp a man's head with one shot at a hundred meters. Blow up an entire unit in thirty seconds with three hits." Oh man, and hadn't THAT been hot.... "Believe me, I know damn well that you aren't anyone's bitch. And nothing we do is going to change that." He slid his hands up, digging his thumbs into the tense muscle on either side of Kimberly's spine until it relaxed, and even then Kimberly felt more than a little like a snake coiled in his lap. "So all you gotta do is decide whether you want it, because either way, it's not going to change a damn thing."

Kimberly just stared at him for a long moment. He'd gotten better at taking all of them at their word, but this obviously ran up against some deeply-held concept of how the world worked. "So you'd let me fuck _you_ then." He said it like it was a challenge.

The kid had obviously not learned anything from their fun in the showers a few months ago.

Greed shrugged. "Sure. Like I said, asking gets you pretty far with me." Not that he was going to give up that easy. After seeing that look in Kimberly's eyes, Greed wanted the kid writhing under him more than just about anything. Greed rolled his hips up, sliding his cock against Kimberly's, and feeling how hard Kimberly was through two pairs of pants was _not_ enough. "But is that what you really want tonight? That what had you hard already when you walked in here?"

Kimberly's eyes went to half-mast as Greed palmed his ass with one hand and his cock with the other, tracing him through his pants with a firm touch that earned him a tightening of Kimberly's hands on his shoulders and the tiniest of pleased sounds.

Greed licked a long line up Kimberly's neck, "Because _I_ want to get you naked and slicked up and under me. Want to slide in and make you feel so damned good...." Greed pulled down Kimberly's zipper and slipped a hand into his fly. The kid swallowed a moan as Greed's thumb circled the wet tip.

The sensory memory of the taste of Kimberly's cock mixed with soap and steam and wet heat made Greed's mouth water. "And I think that's what you want, too, isn't it?"

"Pushy bastard," Kimberly gasped, but his hips were already jerking forward into Greed's touch, down into Greed's lap.

Which was almost as good as a yes. Almost. The same stubbornness that made Kimberly turn it into a fight made Greed want it that much more. "Isn't it?" Greed's fingers slid further back, cupping Kimberly's balls and finding the spot right behind, pressing up hard against his prostate.

Kimberly hissed and jerked like he'd been burned, his nails digging into Greed's arms, his eyes glowing fire-bright, but what came out of his mouth was, "_Yes._ Yes, you fucking bastard, yes."

Greed knew that his grin was too smug, but he couldn't help himself. "Fuck yeah." This time when Kimberly pulled back, Greed let him go and dove for the lube in his kit under the bed.

He half expected Kimberly to want to be on top. Instead, when he turned back to the bed with lube in hand, Kimberly was already on his back, legs spread slightly, looking like a lean, deadly wet dream. Greed just grinned and settled in, popping the top on the lube one-handed.

It was, a bit, like fucking a virgin, though Greed was pretty sure that Kimberly was no virgin. Still, despite being hard and willing, he was too tense, his heart pounding just a little too fast. Greed dealt with this by using more lube than strictly called for and wrapping a hand around Kimberly's cock when he slid the first finger in. Kimberly wrapped a hand around the back of Greed's neck, holding him there for a kiss that was more teeth and demanding tongue than anything else. Greed let him, humming appreciatively as he slid in another finger, thrusting deep and careful and making the kid's fingers tighten in his hair.

He'd gotten three fingers deep and the sheets dripped liberally with lube before Kimberly finally gritted out, "Will you hurry the hell up already?"

Good enough. "Yes, sir," Greed smirked, twisting his fingers on the way out in a way that made Kimberly choke on whatever else he was going to say. Greed wiped his hands on his cock (carefully, counting cadence in his head the whole time) then the sheets before positioning himself and pressing in.

Despite all the preparation, Kimberly grimaced and grit his teeth as Greed pressed in. Greed just went slow, dislodging one of Kimberly's hands from the sheets and guiding it to his cock. Virgin or not, he was fucking _tight_, on the edge of incredible and unbearable, and once he was hilt-deep, Greed stilled, willing himself to ignore how hard Kimberly was despite the discomfort and how he could feel Kimberly's wild heartbeat all around him. Instead, he took his turn snarling a hand in Kimberly's hair and kissing him hard, tongue sliding deep, in and out.

Kimberly made a noise that was half groan, half snarl, and Greed felt his arm start to move between them, pulled back just far enough to watch Kimberly's hand flashing over his cock. He groaned and closed his eyes, licking sweat from Kimberly's breastbone and pulling out halfway before pressing back in experimentally. That earned him a hiss and a push up into the thrust as well as into the next and the next, tight and hot and slick. Kimberly wasn't as vocal as Greed was used to, but he made it clear what he wanted, and Greed's resolution to be careful shredded steadily as Kimberly pushed back into each hard thrust. "C'mon," Kimberly gritted out, hands gripping Greed's arms hard enough to bruise, "show me why everyone's fucking lining up for you."

Greed grinned, hooked Kimberly's knees over his forearms, and slammed in. The new angle was the best he was going to get in this position, and it wiped the smirk off Kimberly's face with a gasped "Fuck!". "How's that?" Greed asked.

Kimberly's reply was to grit his teeth and arch up, as much as he was able. His hands moved away from his swollen cock to clench in the sheets again. It was hot as hell and as close to begging as Greed knew he'd get, and that made him fuck Kimberly harder, just because he could.

Greed wanted it to last longer, wanted to draw it out until they were both exhausted, but Kimberly was demanding, kicking at him and scowling and calling him an old man whenever Greed tried to slow down. Instead, Greed just fucked him down into the mattress, using the roughening pitch of Kimberly's curses as a guide and then reaching between them to wrap around Kimberly and stroke. The kid swore at him and arched up off the mattress, his come slicking Greed's hand bare seconds before Greed closed his eyes and came for just about forever.

The first thing Kimberly said after they'd both caught their breath was, "Fuck, get off me. You're heavy."

Greed groaned and rolled over until he was squished against the wall and Kimberly could shove out from under him, leaving them both curled on the small bed's edges, the mess of wet sheets between them. Greed could feel the lube slick on his hands and just about everywhere else. Kimberly couldn't be much better, and the sheets were a lost cause.

Greed propped his head up on one hand. Kimberly's hair had mostly escaped from its braid, and he looked like he'd dearly love to fall asleep right then and there. Well-fucked was, Greed decided, a good look on him.

He was also watching Greed again, sharp and wary, like he was waiting to see what Greed would do. Prickly. Still.

Greed stretched, feeling the burn of a good fuck working its way through his muscles. He felt good. Damn good. He reached out, grinning, and flicked Kimberly's braid back over the kid's shoulder, just for something to do.

Kimberly rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I don't get you."

"I know," Greed said. Kimberly was always going to be one of those guys that didn't get people in general. Greed had met more than a few of those. But that didn't, in his experience, mean that they couldn't be good friends, good fuckbuddies, or good soldiers. They were just easier to deal with when they knew what you expected of them. Greed guessed that somehow, someway, Kimberly had finally decided that he'd figured out the rules.

"Next time," Kimberly said, his smirk returning, "I get to fuck you."

As if that was going to be any hardship. Greed smiled, lazily. "Fair enough."

Time would tell if Kimberly had figured out the _right_ rules, but Greed had to say he was off to a promising start.

~End


End file.
